Kongor's Den

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Top 5 Plays of the Week - December 21th

And FYI, for the Muay Tigermonium Giveaway contest, I apologize for the late announcement because of the holiday. Before that, I know its a little bit late to say Merry Christmas to you guys. And regarding the contest, design and hero guide contest, im going to extend the deadline until the end of January 2013. And if there's still not much contestant I will change the giveaway rule. Thanks, and really apologize about the inconvinience, happy Holiday guys !

Thursday, December 20, 2012

HON 3.0 Coming in Early 2013

HoN, LoL, push mid, gank top. If that all sounds like gibberish to you, then you’ve never played a multiplayer online battle arena. Even though these MOBAs trace their origins to a custom map for Warcraft III that let two teams of five heroes attempt to destroy each other’s bases, games like League of Legends and Dota 2 have helped make this one of the fastest growing genres in gaming.
One of the more popular MOBAs is Heroes of Newerth, a PC game launched in 2010 by developer and publisher S2 Games. While a success in its own right, HoN never took off the way its biggest competitors did, but S2 is hardly ready to concede defeat.
GamesBeat talked to S2 Games founder Marc DeForest, who detailed the upcoming changes coming to Heroes of Newerth in early 2013 (known as HoN 3.0), including the addition of computer-controller bots. We also talk about the growth of the MOBA genre, the notoriously newbie-unfriendly community, and the challenges of differentiating HoN from its competitors.

GamesBeat: MOBAs have seen a lot of growth.
Marc DeForest: We’ve been pretty successful ourselves. I know that just in this year alone we’ve seen about 50% increase in our player base. We’ve had solid growth in North America, but we’re actually seeing most of our growth come from southeast Asia. I think our partners there said we’re the number one online game played in Thailand, which is a pretty exciting stat to have. Our partner in southeast Asia, we just signed a deal with them to launch HoN in Taiwan and China as well. The size of our company has doubled this year in terms of personnel. We’re close to 100 people. I just signed a lease on a new office this year which over doubles our current square footage to make room for additional growth. We’re not stopping with what we’re doing with HoN. We’re going to continue to operate it as a service. We’re going to continue to invest in it. We’re going to continue to invest in the company. We’ve got some other tricks up our sleeve, and we’ve got some other things we’ve been working on, which is pretty exciting. We’re almost three years old now and still extremely popular and still growing. I think that’s a testament to not just how good of a game HoN is as it is to the stickiness of this genre.
One of the things we have not spent enough time focusing on is the capability of learning how to play the game better before you play it online. Early next year we’re going to launch HoN 3.0. It’s an extremely solid update. We’ve spent a lot of time working on it. We’ve invested a seven-figure budget just into this update alone. One of the things we’re going to focus on is putting bots in the game. We’ve spent a lot of time making sure our bots feel like real players and not be so challenging that it is exactly the same as playing real players. Also, we’re focusing on easing players into playing their first bot game and teaching them the mechanics of the game in an easier fashion.

Patch 2.6.33 Changelog - Christmas with 10+ New Alt Avts

Version 2.6.33

== New Content ==

- Added new Early Access Hero: Lodestone preview
* Lodestone is a melee initiator that can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of any well-armored hero. His prowess in battle allows him to increase the damage of his allies as well as his own. However, Lodestone is not without weakness. He can deal massive damage to a single target but damages himself in the process.
* Releases 12/19/2012

- Added a new Lodestone Limited Edition Early Access Alt Avatar: Shrapnel
* Releases 12/19/2012
- Added a new Lodestone Premium Alt Avatar: Heap
* Releases 12/19/2012

- Added a new GOLD EDITION Moon Queen Alt Avatar: Ether the Moon Prince preview
* The first GOLD COLLECTION avatar in over a year! This avatar is available for one week before it heads back to Merrick's Vaults!
* Releases on 12/26/2012

- Added a new Holiday Edition Maliken Alt Avatar: Mali Klause preview
* This Avatar is exclusively available through the purchase of a $5.00, $50.00, or $100.00 Coin pack! If you have a Mali Klause sitting in your vault, look for him to be already unlocked and available to play! This avatar will not be available for individual purchase this holiday season.
* Releases on 12/19/2012

- Added a new Holiday Edition Ellonia Alt Avatar: Jackson Frost preview
* This Avatar is available with the purchase of a $30.00, $50.00, or $100.00 Coin Pack! This avatar will not be available for individual purchase this holiday season.
* Releases on 12/19/2012

- Added a new Holiday Edition Rampage Alt Avatar: Rudy Rampage preview
* This Avatar is available exclusively with the purchase of a $100.00 coin pack! This avatar will not be available for individual purchase this holiday season.
* Releases on 12/19/2012

- Added a new Holiday Edition Drunken Master Alt Avatar: Eggnog Master preview
* This Avatar is available exclusively with the purchase of a $10.00, $50.00 or $100.00 coin pack. This avatar will not be available for individual purchase this holiday season.
* Releases on 12/19/2012

- Added a new Holiday Edition Glacius Alt Avatar: Frosty the Icemage preview
* This Avatar is available exclusively with the purchase of a $50.00 or $100.00 coin pack. This avatar will not be available for individual purchase this holiday season.
* Releases on 12/19/2012

- Added a new Limited Edition Rhapsody Alt Avatar: DJ Rap City preview
* This special edition avatar is only available at this time through Soundblaster - stay tuned for details on how to get yours!

- Added a new Forsaken Archer Alt Avatar: Pra Ram Archer preview
* Like Muay Tigermonium, this avatar is another winner from our Thailand avatar contest! Complete with new monkey minions!
* Releases on 12/21/2012

- Added a new Rise of Ra Demented Shaman Alt Avatar: Demonic Shaman preview
* The second avatar in the Rise of Ra series!
* Releases on 12/21/2012

- Added a new Hammerstorm Alt Avatar: Bravehurt Hammerstorm preview
* A Hammerstom from the Highlands!
* Releases on 12/24/2012

- Added a new Puppet Master Alt Avatar: Arcsara Puppetmaster preview
* Another winner from Thailand's avatar contest! This ancient demon controls a marionette that will take your soul!
* Releases on 12/28/2012

- Added a new Rise of Ra Torturer Alt Avatar: Cenobite Torturer preview
* The third avatar in the Rise of Ra series!
* Releases on 12/28/2012

- Added a new Taunt: Celebration Taunt preview
* Ring in the New Year with confetti and dropping balls!
* Releases 12/31/2012

- Added a new Flint Beastwood Alt Avatar: Flint Hellwood preview
* From the mean streets of Hell's Keep comes a demon with an attitude and the guns to do something about it!
* Releases on 01/02/2013

- Added a new Keeper of the Forest Alt Avatar: Keeper of the Desert preview
* Complete with new cacti minions!
* Releases on 01/04/2013

- Added a new Rise of Ra Gravekeeper Alt Avatar: Archlich Gravekeeper preview
* The fourth avatar in the Rise of Ra series!
* Releases on 01/04/2013

- Added a new Dark Lady Alt Avatar: Glorious Dark Lady preview
* From community member Glorious!
* Releases on 01/07/2013

- Added a new Emerald Warden Alt Avatar: Topiary Warden preview
* This avatar has gone completly green! With new plant wolves and Gawain!
* Releases on 01/09/2013

Garena - Patch 2.7 Changelog - Lodestone and Christmas Patch

Dear Heroes,

There will be a Game Client Patch v2.7 on 20th December 2012, 0700 hrs - 1159 hrs (GMT +8).
Game Service will be unavailable during this time. Players are advised to logout before this time.
*Downtime may be extended without prior notice due to unforeseen circumstances.*

Please note that the next upcoming scheduled maintenance would be on 16th January 2013, more details will be released when the time is near. However, we \d Friday as scheduled, stay tuned for more updates!

On behalf of HoN team, we wish you guys have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy 2013!

Version 2.7

== New Content ==